NEW YORK, New York (Reuters) -- A city still mourning the death of punk rock
innovator Joey Ramone has endured another tragedy as Velvet Underground
leader Lou Reed was found dead in his apartment last night, apparently from
an overdose of the painkiller demerol.

His body was discovered at approximately 10:45 PM last night in the Chelsea
apartment he was sharing with his wife, avant-garde pop musician Laurie
Anderson. Paramedics responding to a 911 call attempted to resucitate Mr.
Reed. Reed was declared dead at the 13th Precint morgue at 3:45 AM.

He formed the group The Velvet Underground with John Cale, Sterling Morrison
and Maureen "Moe" Tucker in New York, 1965. The group soon became a part of
Andy Warhol's Factory, which housed a great number of the most outsider and
experimenting artists at the time. In 1970

Lou Reed began his solo-career. His first two albums, "Lou Reed" (1971) and
"Transformer" (1972) were produced by long-time admirer of the Velvets,
David Bowie. That year he had his only hitsingle, "Walk on the Wildside".
Through the 1970's he made a large number of albums with "Berlin" (1973),
"Rock'n Roll Animal" (1974) and "Street Hassle" (1978) being the artistic
highlights of this period. The following album "The Blue Mask" (1982) stands
as one of his best. In 1989 he made "New York" - a loveletter to his city,
with a heavy critisism of American thinking. In the 1990's he has continued
to be one of the most sharp-tongued rock'n'roll poets in the USA. In 1993
The Velvet Underground was re-formed with its original line-up, and toured
around the world. In 1997 Lou Reed, along with former Velvet bandmates John
Cale, Maureen Tucker, and the late Sterling Morrison were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lou Reed stands today as one of the most
important songwriters in our time, and has served as inspiration to artists like
David Bowie, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Nine Inch
Nails, U2, David Byrne and Patti Smith.

Later in his life Reed became close friends with Czech president Vaclav
Havel and former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright, who was frequently
seen at Reed's NYC appearances. When notified of Reed's death, Albright
issued this statement: "Lou Reed was a close personal friend of mine, and an
inspiration for the true freedoms allowed in this country. His recent
secretive abuse of painkillers and untimely death is tragic and should be
used as an example for all about the dangers of narcotics. Lou Reed, I will
miss you."

David Bowie made this comment to a CNN.com correspondant via phone call: "In
the last several years, Lou and I had the opportunity to rekindle a
friendship that has seen many ups, downs, and corners.
Lou's art is a testiment to the genius and eccentricity he possessed. I
would have never believed he was using again if not for this tragedy. He was
in great health and great spirits, and the new material he was recording was
some of the best of his career."

The record Lou Reed was working on, the prophetically titled "Angels Fly Far
From Heaven Here," is said to be a thematic work about love lost and regret.
Sources close to the recording process have said it to be a return to his
"Berlin" style of storytelling. Almost all of Reed's vocals and guitar parts
were completed before his death.

Laurie Anderson and Reed's friend Phillip Glass issued a statement today
commiting to finishing the record which will be released posthumously by
Warner Brothers on August 14th.

Mr. Reed is survived by his wife Laurie Anderson. A private funeral ceremony
is scheduled for tomorrow, at an undisclosed NYC synagogue.

The part about "Czech president Vaclav Havel and former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright, who was frequently
seen at Reed's NYC appearances." Sounds fishy to me, although I don't know.

Anyone know if this happened or not? (Nothing on CNN.com, Yahoo News, but nothing on snopes either...)

There's nothing about it on Reuters (despite the byline). And why would Laurie Anderson and Phillip Glass claim they'd finish his final album (complete with release date no less) while the corpse is still warm and twitching ?

This reminds me of when I was in junior high and the rumor went around that Ozzy Osborne had died. What's interesting to me about this one is that they used a Reuters dateline rather than something invented... it makes it relatively easy to debunk (I checked Reuters too, Inky-, but you beat me too it while I was previewing!).